Internal combustion engines are used to power a wide array of “off-road” applications, such as lawn mowers, chainsaws and leaf blowers. Exhaust systems are provided for these engines to guide waste gases away from the engine. These systems typically direct waste gases through an inlet tube to a muffler to silence the noise of the escaping exhaust gases, before they are expelled from an outlet. Mufflers known in the art generally comprise a number of separately manufactured components including a housing that encloses multiple internal baffles and tubes.
Exhaust systems known in the art are expensive to manufacture due to the complexity of the systems and particularly the complexity of the muffler. This expense is further increased since exhaust systems are typically tailored for individual off-road engine designs, which vary considerably between applications and manufacturers. Consequently, for many off-road applications the exhaust system may account for a large portion of the total manufacturing expense.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a customizable exhaust system that provides reduced assembly complexity, which is also capable of being used effectively with a number of different engine models.